The America Under Trump's Second Term Feels Strangely Recognizable to Those Watching from the East

As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not just considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in directly attacking the administration,” she explained. And when she does, she ensures it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content where I openly disparage the government … I believe it's a learned behavior acquired back home.”

The comedian, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “overindulging on democracy,” attending talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.

But over the past year after the president was elected for the second time, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on shifting sands.”

Wang’s fears reflect a new political reality in America which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in the country, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands total allegiance. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments come under fire.

The president has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's authoritarian figure. He's called him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that improved relations with China may help the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that the US is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.

“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, an academic at a top Chinese university. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the masses in order to sideline or weaken the elite … reminiscent of events in the country decades past.”

Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on in office, many in China see American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the rallying of young people to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to the US, albeit without equivalent degrees of violence.

But since the turmoil of the early months under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has settled in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.

‘The Beacon Is Dimmer’

The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in China. Deng has lived in America for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from officials.

Last fall, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy attempting to divide the US.

“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought such a thing could happen in the United States – something that typically happens in an authoritarian country,” he commented.

His pile on came from online peers, rather than the government, but such of social surveillance also has similarities with China.

“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in China today as well,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by Chinese authorities.

Zhang, the legal expert, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to the US for ideals, in part because openly discussing domestic politics in China is dangerous. But now, “America is no longer some kind of ideal for progressive Chinese. America’s image has worsened generally.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but since the new administration, that guide appears less luminous”.

Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this … but after the pandemic, authorities appears to be pursuing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, appear declining.”

The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has also drawn comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and business is frequently unclear.

Recently, authorities announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in rare earth processing, after taking similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to the country's safety. The deals have made some investors concerned that the US is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.

There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, multiple media outlets including the Guardian declined to agree to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on approved news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.

An analyst, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, commented: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain freer, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”

Zhang observes that although numerous scholars in China were surprised to see American colleges capitulate to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and free speech on university grounds, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, which are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not defy orders.”

Nevertheless, Americans are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this article. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi these days than say anything bad